Polycalixarene materials, methods of making same, and uses thereof

1. A porous polymeric material comprising a plurality of calixarene moieties crosslinked by one or more crosslinking moieties, wherein the calixarene has the following structure:

wherein

R is at each occurrence in the polymeric material independently H, Na + , K + , Cs + , Li + ; a polyether group or a polythioether group, or a combination thereof,

two R groups are linked by a polyether moiety or polythioether moiety.

2. The porous polymeric material of claim 1 , wherein the calixarene is chosen from substituted or unsubstituted calix[4]arene moieties, substituted or unsubstituted calix[6]arene moieties, substituted or unsubstituted calix[8]arene moieties, and combinations thereof.

3. The porous polymeric material of claim 1 , wherein the one or more crosslinking moieties have 5 to 40 carbons and comprise one or more C 5 -C 30 aromatic moiety and, optionally, one or more C 2 alkynyl moieties.

4. The porous polymeric material of claim 3 , wherein the aromatic moiety comprises one or more fused-ring moiety and/or one or more biaryl moiety.

5. The porous polymeric material of claim 1 , wherein the crosslinking moiety has the following structure:

—Ar—(R 2 ) x —, wherein

Ar is independently at each occurrence in the polymeric material comprises one or more C 5 -C 20 aryl moiety;

R 2 are independently at each occurrence in the polymeric material a C 2 alkynyl moiety or —B(—(O)—) 2 moiety; and

x is 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8.

6. The porous polymeric material of claim 5 , wherein the crosslinking moiety has the following structure:

—R 1 —Ar—R 2 —, wherein

R 1 and R 2 are independently at each occurrence in the polymeric material a C 2 alkynyl moiety.

7. The porous polymeric material of claim 6 , wherein the crosslinking moiety further comprises one or more aryl linking moiety that is covalently bound to two or more aryl moieties.

8. The porous polymeric material of claim 7 , wherein the crosslinking linking moiety is selected from the group consisting of:

C 1 -C 6 aliphatic moieties, —S(O)—, phosphorous atom, nitrogen atom, C 5 -C 30 aryl or heteroaryl moieties, and combinations thereof.

9. The porous polymeric material of claim 1 , wherein in the one or more crosslinking moieties is/are selected from the group consisting of:

and combinations thereof, wherein Ar is independently at each occurrence in the porous polymeric material comprises one or more C 5 -C 20 aryl moiety; or

or a combination thereof, wherein Ar is independently at each occurrence in the porous polymeric material comprises one or more C 5 -C 30 aryl moiety.

10. The porous polymeric material of claim 1 , wherein the porous polymeric material is mesoporous and/or microporous, has a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of 100 m 2 /g to 5000 m 2 /g, is amorphous, exhibits a surface tension of 120 degrees to 180 degrees, is insoluble in aqueous solvents, or a combination thereof.

11. A method of preparing a porous polymeric material of claim 1 , comprising reacting one or more calixarene compounds having a plurality of reactive groups with one or more crosslinking compounds comprising i) at least two terminal alkyne groups or ii) at least two boronic acid groups and/or boronate ester groups in the presence of a metal catalyst,

wherein the porous polymeric material is formed.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the calixarene compound is a substituted calix[4]arene, a substituted calix[6]arene, a substituted calix[8]arene, or a combination thereof.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more calixarene compounds are selected from the group consisting of tetrabromo-calix[4]arene-tetrol (5,11,17,23-tetrabromo-25,26,27,28-tetrahydroxycalix[4]arene), hexabromo-calix[6]arene-hexol, octabromo-calix[8]arene-octol, p-sulfonatocalix[4,6,8]arenes, thia-crown-calix[4,6,8]arenes, and combinations thereof.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more crosslinking compounds are selected from the group consisting of 1,4-diethynylbenzene, 1,3,5-triethynylbenzene, 1,3,6,8-tetraethynylpyrene, di-, tri- and tetra-ethynyl derivatives of substituted and/or unsubstituted phenyl moieties, biphenyl moieties, heteroaryl moieties, and combinations thereof.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the stoichiometric ratio of the reactive groups of the one or more calixarene compounds and crosslinking compounds is 1:1.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein the polymeric material comprises a plurality of phenoxy groups and the polymeric material is contacted with a lithium source and a lithiated polymeric material is formed or the polymeric material is contacted with a metal source and a metalated polymeric material is formed.

17. An article of manufacture comprising the porous polymeric material of claim 1 or a porous polymeric material made by the method of claim 11 .

18. The article of manufacture of claim 17 , wherein the article of manufacture is a column or filter cartridge.

19. A method of

i) purifying a sample comprising one or more pollutants, the method comprising contacting the fluid sample with the porous polymeric material of claim 1 , a polymeric material made by the method of claim 11 , or the article of manufacture of claim 17 , whereby at least 80% of the total amount of the one or more pollutants in the fluid sample is adsorbed by the porous polymeric material, and optionally, reusing the porous material from which at least part of the one or more pollutants have been removed;

ii) determining the presence or absence of compounds in a sample comprising:

a) contacting the sample with the porous polymeric material of claim 1 , a porous polymeric material made by the method of claim 11 , or the article of manufacture of any one of claim 17 for an incubation period;

b) separating the porous polymeric material from a) from the sample; and

c) heating the porous polymeric material from b) or contacting the porous polymeric material from b) with a solvent such that at least a portion of the compounds are the released by the porous polymeric material; and

d) determining the presence or absence of any compounds, wherein the presence of one or more compounds correlates to the presence of the one or more compounds in the sample, or isolating the compounds;

iii) removing compounds from a sample comprising:

a) contacting the sample with the porous polymeric material of claim 1 , a polymeric material made by the method of claim 11 , or the article of manufacture of claim 17 for an incubation period such that at least some of the compounds are sequestered in the polymer;

b) separating the porous polymeric material from a) from the sample;

c) heating the porous polymeric material from b) or contacting the porous polymeric material from b) with a solvent such that at least part of the compounds are released by the porous polymeric material; and

d) optionally, isolating at least a portion of the compounds;

e) optionally, repeating steps a-d with the porous material from c) from which at least part of the compounds have been released.